Skipper ✪

I’ll never forget the screaming. We'd just locked down checkpoint C, a three-storey townhouse in a wartorn village, and the six of us had taken up positions guarding all windows and entry points, waiting for the counterattack. First a pregnant silence, then a racket of assault rifle bullets and panicked shouts. We were repelling them. The timer had almost expired. Then a squadmate threw a speculative incendiary grenade at a doorway, and the screaming started. The area was being contested, and the insurgent contesting it had just been set alight. The round ended with six of us watching in mute horror as he crawled, wailing, through the fire, into the hallway where he eventually expired. This unscripted moment from one of Insurgency Sandstorm's eight-player co-op matches against waves of AI forces really does speak of its qualities. Not just of the eerily convincing soundscapes it conjures, full of dialogue and terrifying reverberations, and not just of the inherent tension to its control point-based modes. It also demonstrates an ability to convey the ugliness and horror of modern military combat, without the need for overwrought scripted sequences as with Battlefield and Call of Duty. Not bad for a series that started life as a Half-Life 2 mod. Sandstorm is equally brilliant as a co-op or competitive multiplayer game, offering competent large-scale 16v16 fights with vehicles but really excelling at tighter encounters on chokepoint-heavy maps with fewer combatants. The exact nature of the conflict you're fighting and dying for is non-specific but the reference points span Black Hawk Down to Zero Dark Thirty via The Hurt Locker—in other words, a patchwork of post-millennium war in the Middle East. Among the men in bomb vests sprinting at you and the RPG fire, what stands out in particular is that no one's playing the hero. I haven't played a multiplayer shooter as exciting as this for ages, and I'll be coaxing friends into its co-op mode for months to come Instead, every player-controlled and AI soldier sounds terrified. They shout out when they spot an enemy, when they need to reload, or when an objective state has changed, but they never sound like they're relishing the fight like Call of Duty's psychopathic operatives do. They're bricking it, like any sensible person would do. I'd love to see the inner workings of Insurgency: Sandstorm's code so that I could understand how developers New World Interactive manage to trigger appropriate canned dialogue at just the right junctures. That said, they've probably got their hands full, what with this game releasing, so walking an imbecile through their complex systems maybe isn't the most sensible use of their time. Nevertheless, the game's unusually articulate soldiers have plenty of provocation to sound terrified in a given match, treated as they are to very few lulls in the action and bombarded by surprise attacks. Co-op consists of a series of checkpoint captures, in sequence, while AI attack each one in waves. Competitive modes, meanwhile, range from Hardpoint-like power struggles to traditional two or three point control scenarios. There's no attempt to reinvent the wheel that's turned at the centre of modern military online shooters, nor any great imperative to do so. Insurgency: Sandstorm just gets on with doing the fundamentals brilliantly. Weapon behaviour takes a bit of getting used to, mind you. There's no extra layer of visual or sonic feedback for successfully shooting an opponent, so you're sometimes at a loss as to whether your long-range shots connected or not. The active reload mechanic is also sure to catch the new player out at least a dozen times, but these are concessions to realism that Insurgency Sandstorm absolutely convinces you are worth making.  Eventually the absence of hit confirmations becomes something to actively enjoy, just like those moments you remember to lean around a corner and hit your mark. Here, more than anywhere except arguably ArmA, you can take tremendous pride in playing like a professional soldier and forgetting about K:D ratios. If nits must be picked, it's the vehicles that stick out for their rough and ready implementation. I've had some great moments in the gunner seat of a converted pickup, true, but the vehicle handling itself and the extent to which map design actually accommodates them just isn't quite there. There's the lightest touch of jankiness reminding you this isn't a triple-A shooter, but it's only with vehicles that you feel the experience actually suffers for it. Even with those creases, I haven't played a multiplayer shooter as exciting as this for ages, and I'll be coaxing friends into its co-op mode for months to come. I'll also try—and occasionally fail—to describe just how good it sounds from moment to moment to anyone who'll listen. See you at checkpoint C.

Here’s a quick Dragon Age quiz. Who are the Seekers of Truth? What’s their relation to the Chantry? If Divine Justinia V is killed in a massive explosion that creates a breach in the fabric of reality, do her closest advisors have the political authority to reform the Inquisition? What is the Inquisition? What was the Inquisition? If a person walks out alive from the now swirling green demon hole, are they the Herald of Andraste? What do the Tevinter Imperium have to do with anything? If you don’t know these things, Dragon Age: Inquisition’s opening lore-maelstrom threatens to drown you. Over two previous games, an expansion, and numerous tie-in comics and novels, BioWare has created a rich and broad history, much of which shapes the events of this enormous third RPG. It’s initially overwhelming, as names of people, places and events are tossed casually into the narrative. My advice? Stick with it. Inquisition is taking you on a long and satisfying journey, with plenty of time to work out what’s what and who’s who. Now, after the 50-plus hours it took me to finish the main campaign, I feel more versed in the intricacies of the world than ever. More than that, I feel like I’ve had a bigger impact on it than in either previous game. I’ve navigated the polite intrigue of Orlesian politics, recruited powerful and dangerous allies, and elevated the Inquisition from a band of fringe heretics into one of the most feared and admired orders in all of Thedas. Also, I’ve fought a dragon or two. The game opens in the village of Haven. It’s ten years after the events of Dragon Age: Origins, a few weeks after the epilogue of Dragon Age 2, and the exact moment that the Temple of Sacred Ashes is destroyed in a sky-tearing blast of unknown origin. Inside, the head of the Chantry—the world’s main religious organisation—was attempting to negotiate peace between the warring Templars and mages. Where the temple once stood, there is now only a dangerous and growing vortex that threatens to engulf the world. You are the only survivor. Who you are, and why you were at the peace talks, depends on the character you create. There are four races to pick from: human, dwarf, elf or hulking grey Qunari. This choice will provide plenty of special dialogue options based on your character’s culture and history, but it doesn’t affect the setup. You emerge from the breach with no memory of what happened, and with the power to close rifts—mini-tears in reality from which demons can cross into the world. Whatever your choice, you’re a curiously humanised Inquisitor. I played as a Dalish Elf—a people known for their insular nature and distrust of outsiders. Yet I didn’t—and couldn’t—act like any of the Dalish I’d met in the previous games. Similarly, Qunari Inquisitors are described as having rejected the Qun—the strict philosophy that made DA:O’s Sten such a fun guy to have at parties. The world does its best to respond to your race, and the differences add a welcome flavour. In terms of the range of your dialogue and actions, however, it can feel like a mostly aesthetic choice. Seeking closure The breach is the story bridge that links the high-level political posturing of the world’s factions to your own need to venture out and kill things. Closing it requires power, and that, initially, means securing the support of either the rebel mages or the now autonomous Templars. To approach either, you’ll first need to increase the Inquisition’s support—by completing quests. Successfully check something off your to-do list, and you’re awarded Power and Influence. Power lets you unlock new areas and progress the story, while Influence unlocks perks, from new conversation options to enhanced lockpicking for your party’s rogues. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to earn both, because the world is huge and packed full of things to do. The first main area you unlock is the Hinterlands. It’s an enormous expanse, filled with hills and cliffs, and crammed with nooks and crannies hiding secrets, sidequests and lush, verdant scenery. About 30 hours into the game, I returned to check off another in my long list of tasks. I’d been poking and prodding the area throughout, gradually uncovering the borders of the map. This time, I encountered a dragon: first flying overhead, then landing in a bowl of charred trees and scorched rocks. It was only the second I’d seen, and its presence wasn’t tied to a quest. It was just out there, waiting to be found. Not all areas are this big. The Orlesian city of Val Royeaux is a mere marketplace square, used for only a handful of quests throughout the campaign. Then there’s The Fallow Mire, which acts as an almost standalone undead vignette across a mostly linear area. Predominantly, though, you’ll be charting massive, open spaces, each offering a distinct environment and ecosystem. Some, like the forests of the Emerald Graves, are absolutely beautiful—filled with wild and vibrant plant life in a multitude of primary colours. In terms of the size and scope of the environments, Dragon Age: Inquisition is the total opposite of Dragon Age 2. For the most part, that’s welcome, but I do miss the presence of a proper, bustling city. Inquisition is a game about taming hostile lands, which means there’s nowhere as dense with people as DA2’s Kirkwall, or even DA:O’s main city of Denerim. Instead, the most po[CENSORED]ted area of the game is the Inquisition’s headquarters. You’ll return here between missions to talk to companions, assign tasks to advisors, and optionally behead the odd criminal or two. The advisors are a nice addition. Like your companions, they offer personal quests and will chat between missions. Unlike your companions, you can’t take them out into the field. Instead they can be summoned to the War Council, to be given tasks through a map view of Ferelden and Orlais. Each assignment can be tackled through diplomacy, intrigue or military force, with different results and completion times depending on the advisor used. Once assigned, a timer ticks down, after which you can collect your reward. The time for completion can vary from ten minutes to the best part of a day, but it ticks down even when you’re not in the game. This is a great touch. For one thing, it means you’ll have a reward waiting whenever you resume the game. More importantly, it gives a sense of the Inquisition as a growing political force. It was these indirect tasks, as much as my own actions through the story and questing, that sold the sense of the order’s ascendance to legitimacy and fame. Ram raider Out in the world, there’s plenty of busywork to bulk out each zone. Inquisition’s sidequests are a variable bunch, and the worst resemble MMO fetch quests. Context is important here. For instance, early in the Hinterlands, you’re asked to gather the meat from ten rams in order to feed a camp of refugees. This makes sense—it’s early in the story, and the Inquisition is still weak. Such charitable acts will naturally raise the order’s standing. Fine. Elsewhere in that zone, you can pick up a quest to kill three large bears. It’s triggered when you find a note—addressed to someone else—that can be glibly summarised as “first you get the bear claws, then you get the power, then you get the women.” There is no reason at all for the Inquisitor to do this, other than it provides a flimsy excuse to visit that part of the map. Fortunately, there’s plenty of substance too. The campaign’s story is gated by both the suggested experience level, and the Power cost of unlocking each mission. I was easily able to earn enough of both while focusing only on the most interesting objectives. As long as you’re exploring the world, righting wrongs and fighting hostiles, there’s no need to churn through the padding. Even so, the open-world activities are different in nature to past BioWare games. Many have a clear and rigid goal, with little room for on-the-fly moral choices. However you wield the Inquisition, its intentions are good. When tasked with clearing an area of evil, there’s little room to question whether things are really what they seem. They are. Now go and kill the evil. To counterbalance this, the main story missions are filled with tough, world-shifting decisions. They are, almost without exception, wonderful scenarios. Each mission is distinct, memorable, and significantly moves the story along. Initially, the forming of the Inquisition seemed hurried, and underwhelming because of it. After about 20 hours, that was revealed to be a deliberate move—through a sequence that entirely changed my perception of what the order was, and my character’s relationship to it. Before that point, her involvement seemed born out of necessity. Afterwards, it was strengthened by conviction. The story also provides Inquisition’s few instances of lengthy, linear combat encounters. The combat system has been significantly changed for this incarnation. You still have Dragon Age’s classic trio of Warrior, Rogue and Mage—each with multiple skill trees to further define the role. Now, though, the emphasis is on direct attacks, using the left mouse button to swipe away at enemies between activation of the skills assigned to your hotbar. For the most part, it works, but there are persistent minor annoyances. I played as a rogue, and found the combat animations too slow for my liking. You can avoid a lot of damage by dodging the heaviest, most telegraphed enemy strikes, but your movement is limited while attacking. Without a way to instantly cancel out of an attack, I found myself having to wait for the animation to finish—often being hit as a result. Targeting enemies can be troublesome, too. There are few things more frustrating than activating your Inquisitor’s leaping strike, only for her to vault off in the wrong direction because the game hasn’t registered that you’re attacking the enemy in front of you. The best I can say is that I learned to compensate for these issues, and by the end could manoeuvre through fights with something approaching grace. Control over the party’s tactics has been simplified. In previous games, orders resembled absurd algebra puzzles. If Morrigan drops below 25% health, should she turn into a swarm of insects? Sure, but only if she stops being insects at lesser than or equal to 50% mana. In Inquisition, you have some agency over when healing items are consumed, but skills can only be enabled, disabled or marked as preferential—giving them priority over other skills. I miss the fine-tuning the old system enabled. Controlling Inquisition’s party requires either accepting the inefficiencies of the AI, or spending a lot of time micro-managing. Choose the latter, and you’ll find the tactics battle screen—used to assign orders to the party members you’re not currently controlling—has its own issues, all of which are with the camera. It gives you a top-down view of the battlefield, but is awkward to move and doesn’t zoom out quite far enough. There are times when it shines, such as during battles with dragons where there’s a large space and a single target. Against multiple enemies, things can get confusing. Supply and demand The biggest combat change is in how healing works. Mages can no longer cast restorative spells, and characters don’t regenerate health between fights. Instead, your entire party has a shared pool of potions—eight initially, with the possibility of upgrading. These can only be restocked at the camps you set up out in the world, or from supply caches found scattered along the path of a main mission. It’s a decent system, and completely changes how battles are arranged. For one thing, difficulty is no longer tied to the number of enemies, but rather their composition. Even when fighting three or four bandits, the presence of a shield-carrying Templar can provide a significant challenge. Gone too are the long crawls through enemy-infested caves. Most battles are against small and often avoidable groups out in the open world, with spelunking a limited and often short distraction. That this review has highlighted plenty of issues is because Inquisition is imperfect in lots of small, yet noticeable ways. Make no mistake, though: I love so much of what this game is. The story is something I’m eager to discuss with people as they play through the game—to discover what they did, and learn of the breadth of divergence possible in each person’s campaign. More than that, Inquisition is filled with moments that make it such a fulfilling and worthy sequel for the series. The heartwarming interactions with those companions I befriended. The brief touches of humour and levity. The way that, through the Dragon Age: Keep website, my decisions across the previous games have been woven into the fabric of this one. My first fight with a dragon—the way its animations perfectly conveyed arrogance, annoyance, and eventually exhaustion—will be one of my most enduring gaming memories of this year. There’s even co-op multiplayer, in the style of Mass Effect 3’s horde mode. As I write this, the servers are empty, and so I’ve been unable to test it. Whatever its quality, it doesn’t affect a singleplayer campaign that, all things considered, is a resounding success. How much you enjoy Inquisition will likely depend on what it is you enjoy about RPGs. If you want complex systems and hardcore challenge, it could potentially disappoint. I don’t. I want a rich world, interesting characters, and a dramatic and memorable plot. Judged on those criteria, Dragon Age: Inquisition sits happily alongside BioWare’s best.

eam Fortress 2 is the best game I've ever played. Over the last three and a half years I've clocked up 666 hours on Badwater and Dustbowl. I've stabbed, shot, cloaked, crafted, traded and unlocked my way to a backpack full of awesome weapons and hats. Where Team Fortress 2 is now, with its ridiculous weapons, headgear and recipes, is a long way from the lean multiplayer shooter it launched as. And now it's free. Imagine people on servers freezing at the news: the Red Scout's fish flopping in his hand, the Blu Soldier raising his frying pan, about to crown a Pyro before stopping and looking around. All this? Free? Really? It's difficult to comprehend. Fortyeight maps, nine classes, most of the weapons: Valve are giving them away for nothing. All you need is a Steam account. With that you have a free account for TF2: you get a 50-slot backpack to hold your stuff, access to all the standard items, and limited crafting (no rare items). To upgrade to premium (everyone who bought the game is a premium user), with 300 backpack slots and access to all weapons and full trading, all you need to do is buy one item from the microtransaction store. The cost of the cheapest items (such as the Soldier's replacement rocket launcher, the Direct Hit) is 29p. That the dearest item, a pack containing all the weapons and apparel of the most recent update, costs £59, is of no consequence. Even though Valve make money from sales, they've provided a number of ways of getting items for free. You can unlock weapons for every class through achievements. You get weapons given to you through random item drops. If you don't like what they've given you, you can use the crafting system to smelt the weapons into raw material for weapons you do want. Or you can trade. Simply playing the game will give you ample rewards. It's the best example of F2P I can think of. There's no splitting of the community, either: new maps and game modes are always free. Whether it's Capture the Flag, Control Point or Payload, the servers are full of glowing Heavies with pet Medics in tow, Pyros charging into flaming targets with their barbedwires axes raised over their gimp masks, Soldiers and Demomen flying through the air, boots on fire. They host last-minute dives to stop a Payload bomb detonating the server, and rows of dancing Engies. I've dropped in on a server where everyone was battling a laser death cat that was spitting bees from its mouth. Even with intense rocket fire and grenade spam from everyone in the game, it still reigned supreme. Valve's continual tinkering has led to classes that can play multiple roles. The Demo-man started off as a grenade-spamming defence class, but with his new boots, shield and sword add-ons, he's a frontline, headhunting warrior. Possibly with an Afro. The Spy can either be skulking in a corner, cloaked and waiting for the perfect moment to strike, or he can swap watches and run into battle and drop a fake corpse just to mess with the enemy. Anyone signing up to Team Fortress 2 for the first time now will be part of an ever-expanding community, something that Valve have smartly steered but also learned from. It's a vast experiment in incremental game design, but one that provides comics, movies, and piles of hats. Every update is an event and every player can be part of it. For a game that started out as just a multiplayer shooter, Team Fortress 2 has become something astonishing.  Trailer :

The first thing you’ll notice upon playing Rise of Industry is that it’s absolutely gorgeous. The boxy shapes and flat colours of the low-poly style are a perfect fit for the city/factory builder genre. This, combined with bright colours and sticker-like icons, makes the game looks less like a real city and more like a child’s play set. Unfortunately that’s also how the game plays: it's a fun toy, but it could use a little more direction. Rise of Industry is fundamentally about supply and demand. There are a handful of towns of various sizes spread across the map, each of which has two to four stores which will buy a certain good. Your job is to fulfil that demand. This can be as simple as mining some coal and shipping it directly to the hardware store, or as complicated as the pizza, a fiendish puzzle of a product that requires mills producing flour, vegetable farms and a dairy producing cheese (itself a multistep product requiring both cows and the wheat to feed them). A great deal of thought has gone into refining all of these interactions, buildings thunk down satisfyingly, trucks chug along adorably and even the menu buttons click pleasingly. Clearly a lot of effort has been put into ensuring that the game feels fundamentally pleasing to play. All this is remarkably easy to pick up as well. Earlier I said the game looks gorgeous, and this extends to a simple but elegant UI. I was particularly a fan of the little bubbles that pop up to show what product a building is producing and how far along it is. This, along with other icons make it easy to diagnose problems like disconnected roads or too many products in storage. In addition to this helpful UI, the game pushes you toward useful outside sources of information, with links to both the wiki and a helpful YouTube tutorial right there on the start menu. I must admit this last addition left me with an interesting decision as to whether these external tools should be considered part of the game for the review, but eventually I decided they should. Let’s face it, this is how most of us learn how to play complex games nowadays. Dapper Penguin has simply made it part of the experience.  Eventually things get a little bit more complicated, with the player getting access to heavier trucks, trains, boats and even zeppelins to haul products and set up long distance supply chains across the map. The only problem here is I didn’t feel enormous pressure to use them. You see, resources are spread so evenly across the map it seems just as easy to build a new manufacturing facility near your destination as it is to set up a railway line. Perhaps someone better at capitalism than me can point out how much I’d be shaving off my margins delivering my mutton by zeppelin, but at the moment I’m mostly doing it because mutton zeppelins are cool, not because I think they’re helping. Perhaps if all the iron ore on the map was clustered in one corner and all the trees in another a cross country train line would make sense, but this is rarely the case. It doesn’t help that the “campaign” is what I would usually consider a sandbox mode, while the actual “sandbox” is just the same thing but with infinite money and everything unlocked. There are AI competitors, but they don’t seem to add much beyond being a nuisance when they buy exclusive rights to build in an area I was targeting. There’s no real ability to undercut your competition by offering a cheaper product or better marketing, instead the different corporations mostly stay out of each other’s way so that everyone can keep making money, in exactly the way capitalism isn’t supposed to work, but does. How much you’ll enjoy Rise of Industry is largely going to depend on how capable you are of making your own fun. The fundamental interactions are very strong, but the only goal the developers offer is creating an endgame product (a car, a computer or a ready meal). There’s no real capacity for expression and creativity either, one supply chain looks much like another, and the player is chasing efficiency, not aesthetics. I got a good few hours of fun out of Rise of Industry, but ultimately once that time had passed I found I simply wasn’t interested in creating a slightly more profitable brick factory than my last one, perhaps I’m simply not enough of a capitalist.

McLaren is due to launch its first hybrid powertrain in a non-Ultimate Series model next year, and development prototypes have been spotted. New spy shots, taken on a European mountain road, show what initially appear to be just another batch of 720S testing mules. However, closer inspection reveals these prototypes sport legally mandated ‘hybrid’ test vehicle stickers, only used on models with potential for electric-only range. Earlier this year, McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt confirmed to Autocar that the first of a mooted range of hybrids will be the replacement for the Sports Series line-up, including the 540C, 570S, 570GT and 600LT. The first car of that model renewal will be launched next year. The exact specifications of what’s under the skin of these prototypes remains closely under wraps. Rumours strongly suggest that the Woking car maker will be switching to V6 power for the new hybrid system, saving weight and increasing efficiency, with electric power more than making up for the loss in cylinder capacity. The Sports Series replacement is also expected to come with a charging port, making it a plug-in hybrid rather than the recuperative hybrid system found in the P1. It will also put both petrol and electric power through the rear wheels only. While it won’t be possible to fully cancel out the weight penalty of a hybrid system, Flewitt hopes to minimise it. “I’ve always said my ambition was to launch the hybrid at the same weight as the outgoing car,” he said. “We’re not going to hit that, but we’re going to be within 30-40kg. When you think the P1 hybrid system was 140kg, we've done a huge amount to manage the weight. I've driven a prototype of it and the car is very compelling. We wouldn't be launching it if it wasn't going to be.”

Gangs have devised a new way to make money in London’s lucrative drug trade by launching a new upmarket form of cocaine designed to hook wealthy users. “Calli” is cocaine that is a much higher-purity, and at £100 a gram ($AU186), is being sold for much more than the usual £40-£50 pounds a gram users pay for the regular strength version of the drug. The drug gangs are marketing Calli at the British elite as a lifestyle choice rather than addiction, in a desperate attempt to boost profits by gaining new users and getting them to spend more. Cocaine is already been marketed as organic or “ethically grown” on the dark web - but the latest development is “significant”, Vince O’Brien, the head of drug operations at the National Crime Agency (NCA) said. The NCA is the British equivalent to the FBI. The agency released its annual threat assessment on Tuesday, which revealed the scourge of county lines tactics had spread to almost half the police forces in England and Wales. County lines is a form of criminal exploitation when gangs and organised crime networks exploit children to sell drugs into new areas, usually away from their city bases. Often these children are made to travel across counties, and they use dedicated mobile phone “lines” to supply drugs. Police across the UK have been trying to crush the gangs because of the havoc they are bringing to the communities targeted, by the illegal activity the drug trade breeds and also as drug gangs fight each other in turf wars. CHILDREN AS YOUNG AS 12 THE TARGET Children as young as 12 are being put in danger by gangs who are taking advantage of how vulnerable they are. Often the targets are kids who have been excluded from school, or who live in housing commission areas, or children who are in care of social services. There have been alarming reports that gangs lurk at the gates of schools known to have high rates of children suspended from ordinary classes, and lure them with the offer of mobile phones, clothes and cash. Social media is another po[CENSORED]r method, with Snapchat a po[CENSORED]r tool for gangs trying to hook young users in. Another tactic is to threaten the child, or their family. Once they are in the grip of the gang it is difficult to get out as they feel trapped and mani[CENSORED]ted into doing whatever the gangs want. The exact number of children in the grip of the county lines gang isn’t known. According to the Children’s Commissioner there could be at least 46,000 children in England who are involved in gang activity - with 4000 teenagers in London alone being exploited. Tragically the young people exploited through county lines can often be seen by professionals as criminals. However they become trapped in county lines, the young people involved feel as if they have no choice but to continue doing what the gangs want. They are forced to sell drugs to local users and usually travel alone or in small groups on trains and buses - the gangs hope they will fly under the radar of police this way. ORGANISED CRIMINALS ‘TWICE SIZE OF BRITISH ARMY’ The director general of the NCA laid bare the challenge her officers were facing when she launched the annual national assessment at Parliament on Tuesday. One of the most startling facts she told MPs was there were at least 181,000 people linked to serious and organised crime in the UK, which is twice the size of the British army. Of those, 144,000 people in the UK “registered on the most harmful child sex abuse … dark web sites,” the NCA said, insisting its estimates were conservative and not intended to alarm politicians, or the public. “Serious and organised crime in the UK is chronic and corrosive; its scale is truly staggering. It kills more people every year than terrorism, war and natural disasters combined. Serious and organised crime affects more UK citizens, more frequently than any other national security threat,” Ms Owens said. She is lobbying the government for billions a year more in funding. “We need significant further investment to keep pace with the growing scale and complexity. Some will say we cannot afford to provide more investment, but I say we cannot afford not to.” Referring specifically to county lines, The NCA said some organised crime groups are made up purely of children and young people “adopting businesslike operating models rather than relying on identity or postcode”. WE CAN’T BEAT THEM WITH ARRESTS Mr O’Brien, the head of NCA drug operations, conceded this week police would not be able to stop the spread of cocaine and other illegal drugs like heroin by just arresting people. In a candid interview with T he Guardian, Mr O’Brien said the war on drugs would not be beaten while people still desired them in huge numbers. “While there is a user base willing to spend millions and millions of pounds on drugs, which represent millions and millions of pounds worth of profit, then we will have an issue with illicit drugs in this country,” he said. “We can’t arrest our way out of that anymore than we can arrest our way out of serious violence. We need to tackle the drivers behind it.” The UK is currently experiencing a crime wave, especially in London, with stabbings and murders a regular occurrence. “While we have high levels of production and we have high levels of demand we will continue to have the resilient market we have at the moment. And we need to tackle both of those more effectively,” Mr O’Brien said. Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, told a London radio show she thought drug users had “blood on their hands” as it was fuelling the knife crime epidemic. “I think anybody who is not seriously mentally ill, seriously addicted, who is seeking ‘recreational’ drugs, particularly class A drugs, yes, I think that is a good way to put it, I do.”

Two German medieval combat enthusiasts killed with crossbows were shot through the heart with arrows and a third fatally through the neck, reports say. The three were found in a hotel room in Bavaria on Saturday, along with three modern crossbows. Two were used to fire the arrows, prosecutors say. A man and woman were in bed, hand in hand, impaled with arrows. A woman hit in the neck was lying on the floor. The deaths, near Passau, were linked to two more deaths in north Germany. Passau prosecutors are sure there was nobody else in the hotel room apart from the three who died. There was no sign of any struggle. The hotel is in an idyllic spot by the River Ilz, po[CENSORED]r with hikers. The three had checked in on Friday evening, for three nights without breakfast, and the bodies were found by a room maid. Two wills were found in the room, the prosecutors' spokesman said. They were linked to Torsten W, aged 53, and Kerstin E, aged 33, who were lying in bed. They were both from the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The third victim was named as Farina C, aged 30. All three are listed on a website run by the International Jousting League, based in Belgium. But an IJL spokesman told the BBC that the listing merely meant they had registered as affiliates at some time in the past, and that he did not know them. The IJL organises medieval-style tournaments and ranks its members according to their skill in the use of medieval weapons and horse-riding. But the spokesman said there was no competitive jousting in Germany at present. What about the two deaths in north Germany? The bodies of two women were found in a flat on Monday in Wittingen, a town 650km (400 miles) north of the hotel. One was aged 35, a primary school teacher; the other was 19, police say. It is not clear how they died, but there were no crossbows in the flat. They had apparently been dead for a few days, and there were no signs of violence, police said. The 19-year-old came from Rhineland-Palatinate - the state where the couple in the hotel bed also lived. The two in Wittingen have not been named, but the 35-year-old was the partner of Farina C, who was resident in the flat, German media report. Farina C worked in a bakery. All five victims were resident in Germany. Prosecutors said the bodies in Wittingen had been found "because one of the neighbours heard about the reports from Passau and told police that the letter box of the flat was overflowing and that a strange smell was coming from the flat". What else is known about the victims? The relationship between the three victims in the hotel remains unclear. Torsten W had been shot twice in the head and three times in the chest, while Kerstin E, next to him in bed, had one arrow in the head and another in the chest. Farina C was lying in front of the double bed and had one shot from a crossbow between the throat and the chin. Crossbows fire short arrows, also known as bolts. Hunting with bows or crossbows is banned in Germany, but anyone aged 18 and above can buy a crossbow. German tabloid Bild reports that Torsten W ran a medieval goods shop in the small western town of Hachenburg, selling items such as mead, swords and knives. Another hotel guest told local newspaper Passauer Neue Presse that it had been a "completely quiet night". Police seized a white truck, parked outside, registered in Westerwald, Rhineland-Palatinate. It had a sticker with the letters FMJ - believed to be a reference to Full Metal Jacket crossbow arrows made by a US firm, Easton Hunting. Torsten W had a long white beard and the women were dressed in black, another hotel guest said, describing them as "strange". On arrival on Friday evening they simply wished other guests a "good evening" and went upstairs to their second-floor room with bottles of water and Coca-Cola, said the guest, quoted by the daily Merkur. In Wittingen a neighbour quoted by Merkur described Farina C as "always a bit odd - always dressed in black, sort of gothic". The German Shooting Union (DSB) has 3,000 enthusiasts who use crossbows, Spiegelonline news reports. In all, the DSB has about 1.35 million members.

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Transistor remains an absolute joy to play on Nintendo Switch. The system's screen has no issues with readability, though the game is best enjoyed in docked mode, where its visuals--which remain striking nearly five years after its original release--have room to flourish on a big screen. Its turn-based combat and relatively brief encounters are well-suited to short bursts of gameplay in handheld mode, though the strong writing and pacing are likely to pull you through extended sessions. The loss of the PS4 version's DualShock gimmicks, such as your sword's voice coming through the controller's speaker, are missed, but this port nonetheless represents a fine way to play what is still a gorgeous, terrific game. -- Chris Pereira, October 30, 2018 A dead man. A weapon. A dress, torn and discarded on the ground. A voice says, "What a night. You're still in one piece; that's all that matters." Transistor begins with remarkable confidence, throwing you right into the life of nightclub singer Red at what might be her lowest point. There's no immediate explanation for who she is, or what this world is, or what happened the night before, and all this mystery only makes your journey more captivating. Transistor asks you to trust in it, to come along on the journey even though you have no idea where you're going. And it rewards your trust, weaving a beautiful and unconventional sci-fi tale with a human heart, and empowering you with a wonderfully flexible combat system that fuses real-time and turn-based action to create something that feels unique. As you move through Cloudbank, the world of Transistor, you encounter manifestations of the process, a force that's seemingly running rampant, annihilating Cloudbank as it goes. With the help of the transistor--the strange weapon you pull from a dead man's body when the game begins, a weapon Red drags along behind her as if it's a sword that's too heavy for her to wield properly--you fight the process. You can run around fighting your enemies in real time, but you're outnumbered, and you're just not quick enough or strong enough to overcome them this way. Thankfully, you have a trick up your sleeve called turn, which enables you to freeze time, plot out your upcoming movements and attacks, and then carry them out in rapid succession. As you progress, you collect more and more techniques, called functions, each one the essence of a fallen resident of Cloudbank. There are 16 functions in all, including straightforward attacks, movement abilities, a function that spawns a doglike helper, a function that temporarily turns enemies into allies, and others. Each one can be slotted as an active ability, or to upgrade another function, or to give you a passive benefit. There are a remarkable variety of ways in which these techniques can be combined, and hitting on particularly effective combinations and putting them to use in battle is immensely satisfying. Transistor's combat makes you feel powerful by giving you an edge on the process, but it also encourages you to think carefully about what you're doing, because the process is no pushover. It has tricks of its own, sometimes obscuring your vision, sometimes pulling you out of your turning phase without warning. It's a clever foe, which makes matching wits with it all the more enjoyable. And, much like the idols of Supergiant Games' earlier game Bastion, Transistor has limiters, optional modifiers that make your life more difficult but reward you with more experience, so if you want a more challenging experience, you can have it. You can upgrade any function with any other function, making your skill set extremely customizable. But what is the process, really? And what has happened to all the residents of Cloudbank? Red is driven to get to the bottom of it, and she's not alone. From inside the transistor speaks a man's voice, bringing life to your quest as it responds to your actions and slowly helps you piece together the story of Cloudbank. The always-present voice also puts a relationship at the heart of Transistor. Red can't speak--the events of the night before have stripped her of her voice--but her wordless actions reveal her fierce determination, and as the voice speaks from the transistor, and Red finds ways of responding to it, a connection between the two becomes clear. Also shedding light on the world and its people are the files accompanying each function. To reveal more about these people whose essence has been trapped in the transistor, you have to use their functions in different ways, putting them in active slots, upgrade slots, and passive slots, which gives you an incentive to tweak your build and try different techniques. The files are so well written and paint such vivid pictures of Cloudbank's fallen residents that you naturally want to uncover all the details they contain. There's a touch of magic, even of spirituality, to Transistor's story, a sense that there are things within the world of Cloudbank that transcend our understanding of what's possible. What slowly emerges in Transistor is the story of a clandestine organization called the Camerata, working behind the scenes in Cloudbank for its own purposes. And while the answers to the plot's questions about who the Camerata are and what the transistor does are interesting, they're not what makes Transistor's story special. Cloudbank is a technological world, but not a cold one. It's not a place of pure ones and zeroes. There's a touch of magic, even of spirituality, to Transistor's story, a sense that there are things within the world of Cloudbank that transcend our understanding of what's possible. Red has a good set of pipes. Or she did, before last night. And Transistor's artful presentation has some magic of its own. There are a few astounding moments in Transistor, like the moment when you step up to a microphone and press a button to sing, and Red's haunting voice comes in and carries you back to what had happened the night before, the visuals communicating in shorthand what words would take too much time to say. Or the moment when Red, silhouetted against the city, speeds across Cloudbank on a motorcycle, hunting the people who are responsible for everything that has happened. Transistor is always a good-looking game, but in these instances, it demonstrates a rare knack for combining its visuals and music to powerfully convey both narrative information and tone, driving the story forward with Red's own unwavering resolve. So in the end, yes, Transistor is a fun action role-playing game with a neat combat system, but beautiful moments like these make it more than that. They make it a game with a soul.

Halo franchise boss Frank O'Connor said recently that the multiplayer modes for Halo Infinite available at launch are not 100 percent locked in yet, but what he can say for sure is that battle royale will not be among them. Writing on ResetEra, O'Connor's statement came in response to a video from noted Microsoft insider Brad Sams who said 343 was in the early development stages of a battle royale mode for Halo Infinite. "We will not talk about the launch content of Halo Infinite until we're ready," O'Connor said. "I haven't watched the video so if I am misinterpreting the headline as 'Halo Infinite is launching with/as a Halo Battle Royale mode' that is still not the case," he said. "You can probably make your own Battle Royale mode in Forge even right now though. It's a mode not a genre. And all the variants out there now are in my opinion quite radically different from my perspective. Apex vs Fortnite is chalk and cheese--one focuses on movement and map traversal and the other on building and budgeting. Like CTF. BTB Super Fiesta (for example) contains a lot of the shenanigans and emergent fun of that kind of large experience but big sandbox modes are not Battle Royale any more than Oddball is CTF." O'Connor joked that Halo Infinite will still have BR--the Battle Rifle, that is. And while Halo Infinite may not have a battle royale mode, O'Connor teased that 343 is looking into "big social modes with loads of organic shenanigans." "The launch modes for MP are not 100% defined and are subject to change till quite late in the process--but Battle Rifle will still be there," he said. "So you can have BR. But are we interested in big social modes with loads of organic shenanigans? Yes. Specifically A blimp full of survivors heading to an Island after a (metaphorical) lecture from Beat Takeshi? No. We are NOT doing this as of now--and no plans to--but Battle Royale could be made for any of the Halo games in MCC or [Halo 5] with some content and scripting additions, because it is a mode. It would have limits based on each engine. I'm pointing that out to be clear that it's one of the ways we think about gameplay possibilities rather than a single direction for a title." Brad Sams, who has accurately reported on many unannounced Xbox endeavours, may be accurate in stating Microsoft has done some work on a Halo battle royale game. Game development is highly iterative. So it might be possible that 343 experimented with battle royale and decided not to pursue it further. Given the enduring appeal of the battle royale genre, it makes sense that Microsoft would at least consider a battle royale mode for Halo Infinite. The Call of Duty franchise added battle royale with Black Ops 4's Blackout mode, while Battlefield V's battle royale mode is called Firestorm. These are modes within the games, not standalone experiences like po[CENSORED]r free-to-play battle royale games like Fortnite and Apex Legends. Also in the Sams video, he claims a new trailer for Halo Infinite is being prepared for E3 this June. That would be no surprise, as Halo is one of Microsoft's tentpole franchises, and we've already heard that Halo Infinite will be part of the show. He also responded to the recent claim that Halo Infinite has a $500 million budget. He said he's heard that the actual budget is "in that region." Given the sizeable investment, Sams added, "Careers will be made or broken on [Halo Infinite]." As Sams understands it, the reported $500 million budget would cover game development and development costs associated with the brand-new engine, Slipspace, that Microsoft created for Halo Infinite. It's unclear if marketing costs are included. A spokesperson for Microsoft told GameSpot about the $500 million budget, "We do not comment on speculation and rumor." Halo Infinite is in development for Xbox One and PC; a release date hasn't been announced yet. In other Halo news, it was recently announced that Orange is the New Black and American Gods actor Pablo Schreiber will play Master Chief in the Showtime Halo TV series. GameSpot and Showtime are owned by CBS.

As a long time Protoss player I can’t tell you the disappointment I initially felt when I heard that they’d be the last race in the StarCraft II trilogy. After the amazing experience I had with Wings of Liberty (and subsequently Heart of the Swarm) however I was far happier; knowing that having the Protoss bring about the ultimate conclusion of this near 2 decade long franchise. Whilst I may have snoozed on the actual release date, meaning my collector’s edition trilogy will have to be completed with a trip to eBay, I’ve since spent a good chunk of time with Legacy of the Void and I’m glad to say many of my expectations have been met. Legacy of the Void takes place some time after the events of Heart of the Swarm with Zeratul following the trail of the Xel’Naga prophecy. His quest has led him to the home world of the Tal’Darim, a brutal race of Protoss loyal to the dark lord Amon. Upon destroying the void catalyst, a crystal which allowed the Tal’Darim to commune with their dark lord, he is shown a vision of Tassadar who instructs him to retrieve the Xel’Naga keystone. With this information he returns to Artanis who is beginning the raid to retake his home world of Aiur. Zeratul warns him against this however the young Executor proceeds anyway, playing right into Amon’s hands. It might just be the fact that I’ve upgraded my PC significantly since I last played a game of StarCraft but Legacy of the Void is an absolutely stellar looking game. For the most part the in-game graphics appear to be largely the same, possibly a little more textured, but the graphics outside that are just stunning. Blizzard’s trademark lower poly, highly stylized aesthetic is in strong force here, done so well that their in-game engine cutscenes feel on par for many pre-rendered scenes in other games. This does come at a cost however and even my relatively beastly machine started to struggle when I hit 200/200 supply and started moving my deathball across the map. The game ready drivers from Nvidia did improve this noticeably however, something I had been neglecting to update for far too long. Once again the core game of Legacy of the Void is the trademark RTS game play, putting you in control of vast armies which you’ll be using to slay countless hordes of enemies. You’ve got your regular build your base and throw your army at the enemy style maps whilst others are focused on small teams or more strategic ones that focus on hero units. The unit upgrade system makes a return, allowing you to choose from 3 different factions which imbue a unit with additional powers and abilities or grant you an entirely new unit to build. The real difference in Legacy of the Void however comes in the form of the Spear of Adun, your arkship which can be upgraded with all sorts of abilities that will aid you in combat. Overall it’s the kind of game we’ve come to expect from Blizzard, exactly what all of us fans were wanting from them. I’ll have to admit I struggled at the start to get engaged with Legacy of the Void as the missions (and the story, more on that later) just simply failed to grab me like the last 2 instalments did. I think this is partly because at the beginning there’s not a whole lot going on and you spend a decent amount of time building up your cast of characters that will join you along the way. Past a certain point though it’s easy to lose long periods of time, the missions flowing into each other seamlessly and the desire to get more solarite (to upgrade the Spear of Adun) forcing you to try and retry missions to get it right. Towards the end though things start to drag a bit and I think this is probably Legacy of the Void’s biggest flaw for me. Unlike the previous 2 instalments (and this may just be me looking back on them with rose coloured glasses) Legacy of the Void doesn’t provide the same kind of rewarding challenge at higher difficulties. Indeed there are many missions where higher difficulties (and I did test this) just means more enemies, like any one of the “protect your ally’s base” missions. In those particular missions it doesn’t feel like you’re being challenged so much as worn down by near insurmountable odds, forcing you to cheese encounters or, if you’re just done with a particular encounter, cheat. Since I’ve always played on hard and found the challenge rewarding it was odd to feel this way with Legacy of the Void but it was definitely one of those things which soured my experience towards the end. The Spear of Adun upgrade system is great, allowing you to select a variety of abilities and passive bonuses that you can use during the missions. For the economy focused missions things like the chrono warp (1000% faster building/upgrading) are amazing whilst others, like the warp in reinforcements ability, make resource constrained maps a breeze. It’s definitely not a one size fits all kind of upgrade system as you’ll be trading off between other potentially valuable upgrades. The encounters are built around you actively using the abilities however so whilst the benefits are awesome it does add another layer of complexity onto this already intense game. You’ll be making similar trade offs for your unit choices as, whilst some of them are noticeably more effective than others, sometimes the situation will call for a switch. The Zealots, for example, are typically best placed to be upgraded with the stun however there are numerous AOE situations where the others are better suited. The one unit which I don’t think has an equal among the other choices was the Havoc as extended range and +30% damage is just impossible to beat. Other than that though I found myself often switching between different combinations for whatever the mission called for. This is most certainly a departure from the previous 2 instalments which had a very clear “best” option for pretty much everything. It shows that Blizzard has put a lot of effort into making all the choices viable which makes for a far more interesting single player experience. As I mentioned before the story takes some time to get on its feet, mostly because it’s introducing a lot more plot elements which aren’t exactly interesting when you’re first playing through. However they start to rapidly build on each other as the game progresses and there are some really enthralling moments both in and out of the missions. Whilst they kind of reveal the ending early on in the campaign it’s still interesting to follow it along to its ultimate conclusion. Indeed it’s something I still feel like I’m processing as this is the conclusion of a story that’s been running for almost 20 years. Thankfully though it finishes well, not leaving any loose ends that scream sequel. I’m sure we’ll see more in the StarCraft universe as time goes on though. StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void is a brilliant conclusion to the story of Blizzard’s flagship RTS, bringing with it the kind of polished experience that they’re famous for. The game play is exactly how you’d expect it to be with the RTS experience just oozing polish at every corner. The upgrade system, along with the Spear of Adun, are great additions to the game, adding another layer of variety and choice that allows you to play out each mission in incredibly unique ways. The story may take its time finding its feet but once it does it ramps up quickly to an ultimate conclusion that’s predictable but enjoyable all the same. It’s always bittersweet seeing a long story arc like this come to its final conclusion but I can say wholeheartedly that I enjoyed the journey that brought me here.

Soma, the first place to be colonized in System 3, is not only the home to Ganesha City, but also Naraka, the Diwalite-rich “dark side” of this planet-sized moon. Orbiting around Dyaus and forever turned away from the protection of this gas giant, Naraka is a craterous and treacherous land frequently bombarded by meteorites, where the business of collecting Diwalite gets serious… and deadly. Forced by their corporate masters and with the (false) hope of freedom, hybrids brave meteorite impacts and risk their lives in a harsh environment to gather the dangerous and powerful resource raining down from the skies. As a Space Pirate Captain, what would be your gameplay strategy in Naraka? Attack hybrid slave ships and free them by force, or board Diwalite transport ships in an attempt to steal their precious cargo? Let us know in the comments how you see yourself taking on the challenging environment of Naraka!

theHunter: Call of the Wild offers the most immersive hunting experience ever created. Enter a beautiful open world full of life, from majestic deer to impressive bison, to countless birds, insects and creatures of wildlife. Every corner of this 13,000 hectare universe has been created with Apex software, an award-winning technology developed by Avalanche Studios for more than 10 years of explosive action games development. In addition to offering you a lush solo experience, theHunter: Call of the Wild offers unique multiplayer options in cooperation or competition up to 8 players. Share the ultimate hunting experience, and win the title of Best Hunter. KEY FEATURES: A new generation hunting game. theHunter: Call of the Wild offers the most immersive hunting experience ever created. Enter a beautiful open world full of life, from majestic deer to impressive bison, to countless birds, insects and creatures of wildlife. Discover complex animal behaviors, dynamic climatic events, complete day / night cycles, ballistic simulation, ultra-realistic audio environment, smells worn by a sophisticated wind system, and more. All systems combine to further increase the immersion and bring out the hunter in you. Explore a gigantic open world. Explore nearly 13,000 hectares of land, ranging from wetlands and dense forests to lush green valleys and open farm fields. TheHunter's vast world: Call of the Wild is divided into separate and distinct game reserves, each filled with surprises and memorable moments. Accept missions and challenges from locals or get off the beaten path. Discover observation points, observatories and rest areas. They will allow you to move quickly and effortlessly in this huge open world. A decade of development. theHunter: Call of the Wild is the evolution of Expansive Worlds' exceptional hunting game, theHunter, with more than 6 million registered players and 7 years of online operation. Avalanche Studios and Expansive Worlds are discovering the hunt for a new generation of players. theHunter: Call of the Wild is built using Apex - Avalanche Open World Engine, an award-winning technology, designed for over 10 years of explosive action games development. Become a hunter. Hunt in your own way. Collect and equip a variety of rifles, handguns and bows, and personalize them with glasses and different types of ammunition. Find your favorite weapons and learn to master them. Develop your character by unlocking many skills and equipment. Learn how to use olfactory decoys and decoys, but especially study your prey: pay attention to the behavior of each animal, its characteristics and its travel habits. Do you start as a hunter? No problem. Smart systems will help you and make sure you get the most out of your hunting experience, whether you're a keen beginner or a seasoned veteran. Share your hunting experiences. Determine who is the best. In addition to offering you a lush solo experience, theHunter: Call of the Wild offers unique multiplayer options. Join up to 8 friends (or perfect strangers) in cooperative and competitive modes. Enjoy a wide range of challenges and events at stake. Hunting is more rewarding and exciting with friends, so share your experiences and earn the right to brag about being the best hunter. theHunter is a franchise built around its community. True to this legacy, its evolution, theHunter: Call of the Wild, will be shaped by the accumulated knowledge and unparalleled dedication of its players. Together, we will make this experience even richer over time.

It looks like Intel's Comet Lake processors have been listed in the latest Linux support list, which indicates that we might be looking at up to 10 cores with the upcoming lineup of processors. In terms of the process node, the Comet Lake family is likely to be built on the 14nm process node but with a higher number of cores than what's currently available on Intel's mainstream S platform. Intel Comet Lake Processor Lineup To Feature Up To 10 Cores, Notebooks Up To 8 Cores The Linux support list includes Comet Lake-S, Comet Lake-H, and Comet Lake-U families. Intel's Comet Lake-S parts are aimed at the desktop platform and we can see two parts that have been listed, and 10 + 2 and 8 + 2 SKUs. The Comet Lake-S 10 + 2 SKU indicates that the chip would feature 10 cores and GT2 graphics. This is a higher core count than the Coffee Lake-S 8 + 2 part such as the Core i9-9900K. The other part is the Comet Lake-S 6 + 2 SKU which features 6 cores and the same GT2 graphics chip. This chip would be replacing the 6 core Core i7-9700K. RELATED Intel to Face More 14nm CPU Shortages in Q2 2019, AMD Notebook Market Share To Increase Significantly With Ryzen Mobile From 10% in Q1 to More Than 18% in Q2 One thing to consider is that if the 10 core part comes at higher frequencies like Core 8 Core Core i9-9900K, then we might be looking at some extreme power consumption and temperature figures as the processor is still based on the 14nm node and we know how it performs with higher core processors and frequencies that are around the 5 GHz mark. You would definitely require some high-end liquid cooling setups to keep this beast cool and in terms of pricing, do not expect this chip to cost below $ 550 US. Intel Comet Lake-S / H / U CPU Support Listings in Linux CoreBoot: The high-performance notebook family will be receiving two parts, Comet Lake-H 8 + 2 with 8 cores and GT2 graphics and also the Comet Lake-H 6 + 2 with 6 cores and GT2 graphics. The high-end notebook parts would probably be launching soon with faster clocks. Some of the high-end notebook parts may have already started appearing on the internet. We know that Intel already has Coffee Lake H and HQ Series 8th Generation parts out for high-end notebooks. Now, considering that the Comet Lake family will essentially be a refresh of the existing Coffee Lake parts, they might end up being branded as the 9th Generation Parts too, with Intel moving to a new naming scheme when 10nm finally hits retail. This theory also goes along with the Frost Canyon NUC roadmap leak which we got last year. We already know several 9th Generation "H" series parts that were listed by Intel earlier and include the following: Intel Core i9-9980HK (8 Core / 16 Thread / Up To 5.0 GHz) Intel Core i9-9880H (8 Core / 16 Thread / Up To 4.8 GHz) Intel Core i7-9850H (8 Core / 8 Thread / Up To 4.6 GHz) Intel Core i7-9750H (8 Core / 8 Thread / Up To 4.5 GHz) Intel Core i5-9400H (4 Core / 8 Thread / Up To 4.3 GHz) Intel Core i5-9300H (4 Core / 8 Thread / Up To 4.1 GHz) The remaining Comet Lake entries are Comet Lake-U parts that are designed for ultra-low power platforms. The Comet Lake-U series includes 6 core, 4 core and 2 core parts, all of which feature GT2 graphics. There is also a single Comet Lake-ULX part with a quad core and GT2 chip design. This would be for the more exclusive Core M devices but we can not confirm this at this time. Now one thing is for sure, do not expect any major core enhancements alongside the core count jumps and increased clocks. The Comet Lake lineup is essentially going to be one of the last CPU refreshes for the 14nm node before Intel finally shifts their lineup to 10nm. It's easy to say that desktop and high-end notebook parts will stick to 14nm this year with 10nm arriving next year. The 10nm Ice Lake CPUs will arrive this year but only around during the holiday season and in low power notebook platforms. It will be interesting to see how the 10 core parts on the LGA 1151 platform compare against the Ryzen 3000 series parts that are rumored to feature up to 16-12 cores

Apple introduced new information about iOS 12 at the WWDC 2 days ago, started macOS 10.14 Mojave, watch OS 5 and tv OS 12. As we are most interested in iOS information, look all you need to know. The most important thing on iOS 12 is performance on old terminals. Apple has optimized the new iOS to be much faster on old phones like iPhone 6 or 6S. It's the opposite because you know that every new iOS phone did not work just as fast. But Apple promises a 40% faster application speed and 70% more speed when the camera opens. Processors will be optimized by software to consume less when opting for rescue. Notifications (which iOS are all embarrassed) are now grouped in Android style. Notifications will be grouped according to the application The Photos application gets smarter and gives you suggestions, divides your photos better by categories (places, moments, selfs, memories, etc.) and offers suggestions for sharing photos with those who appear in them. Siri became clever, but he still did not get the Romanian language. In fact, Siri is now better optimized for Watch OS and can do more on iPhone. What's scared me up and excited at the same time at Siri was the example given with the automatically sent SMS. Siri knows when you have a scheduled appointment in the calendar, knows if you can go or not, and if you get late, he will send an automated SMS saying that you are late. iOS 12 is available on all iPhone 5S and SE phones on top and on all tablets starting with iPad Air.

If you have a program that runs on a mapped network share or HDD and steals your drive letter, the program will not work properly. Today I will show you step by step how to change your driver letter to fix the error. Be careful to know exactly what the letter your driver used to be before to make things worse. ? \ - usually reserved for the operating system - ? \ - usually reserved for the second partition for personal files I will structure this tutorial in several steps to make it easier. The tutorial is valid for the versions of windows 7, 8.1 and 10. Step 1: We go to START and type "Computer Management" or "Computer Management" Step 2: Go to the Storage submenu at DISC MANAGEMENT / DISC MANAGEMENT Step 3: We select the disk that we want to change the right-click on it and select the "Change Drive Letter and Paths ..." option "Change drive letter and path Step 4: 1. Select the driver with the default letter; 2. Click on the change button Step 5: To change the letter you must: 1. Select the default letter; 2. Select the letter we need; 3. Tap ok to save, after this step we see a warning message, click OK to continue; That was all, if you liked it and it helped you this tutorial leave a liking on the topic!

The hardscrabble town of Boudenib, the base for the opening stages of this year’s Carta Rallye, is nestled on the edge of the Sahara desert, 10 miles or so from the Algerian border in the far east of Morocco. Not that you’d know it from the weather. As the assembled crews prepare all manner of outlandish rally-raid machinery for the seven-day, 1250-mile marathon, including Dakar-honed Mitsubishi Pajeros, spaceframe buggies and monstrous trucks, the rain is lashing down, a bracing wind is causing havoc and the desert scrubland has become a Glastonbury-esque mud bath. In the unexpected downpour, the spirits of the competitors are as leaden as the grey skies. But one crew stands out – and not just because, amid all the heavily modified rally cars, their three Dacia Dusters look as though they’ve been wheeled in from a showroom. They’re briskly carrying out their tasks with no regard for the rain, pausing only to trade jokes and banter. “This is what we do,” says Scott Garthley, shrugging. “It’s just basic training for us.” Given the 14 members of the Future Terrain team are all current or former military service personnel, he’s not exaggerating. Many of the team have severe physical injuries. Others have mental injuries, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Yet there are no complaints, no excuses. They’ve been preparing for the Carta Rallye for months. Rain isn’t going to stop them. Future Terrain isn’t the first motorsport initiative for injured service personnel, or even the first rally-raid one: Race2Recovery raised money for charity by twice running a team on the Dakar Rally. Although inspired by that project, Future Terrain is very different – and that’s shown by the team’s desert orange Dusters. “We’re here for motorsport, but it’s a background to what we’re really trying to achieve,” says co-founder Grant White. “We could be doing anything, really.” White, a former British Cross Country Championship (BCCC) competitor, helped establish Future Terrain in 2016 after meeting some of the original Race2Recovery team. At the time, BCCC crews could feature a disabled driver or co-driver. The charity successfully argued for crews made up of two disabled competitors. But while cross-country rallying is the focus, there are no Dakar ambitions. White says: “What Race2Recovery achieved by becoming the first team of amputees ever to finish the Dakar Rally was incredible, but the costs of competing weren’t sustainable. Future Terrain was inspired by their success but we want to be more accessible and put the emphasis on real-world training. We hope we’re building on their legacy.” By focusing on the BCCC, initially in Land Rover Freelanders, Future Terrain could reach 40-50 veterans on a far more modest budget compared with competing in the Dakar Rally and appeal to a wider audience. The team would run one car in the event, giving passenger rides in a second. “The driving becomes a background activity,” says White. “Where the real magic happens is in camp. It’s where people open up about their issues.” The push beyond the BCCC came after Dacia supplied Future Terrain with four diesel Dusters. Three were ready for the Carta: one with a competition-spec roll-cage (allowing it to compete in the BCCC), two with external cages for use in demos and events such as the Carta.

“Are you single?” This is exciting. Why are they asking? Do they want to know if you’re unattached so they can ask you out on a date? Or is it just small talk again? It’s a fairly innocuous question, isn’t it? Are you single? Or the flip side, are you married? Read more Is a public proposal more likely to lead to divorce? It’s the kind of thing you ask someone you’ve met at a party after “what’s your name?” and “where do you come from?” It’s impossible to cause offence by asking someone whether or not they have a partner, surely… Are you mad? Once again, the problem with the question is in the answer. What are they going to do with it once they find out? Let’s take it from there. “Yes. I’m single,” you respond, casually stroking your moustache. “Are you busy this weekend?” they reply. “I need a date for a party on a yacht moored in Monaco. Blumenthal’s doing the food. Sheeran’s doing the music. We’re getting there by private jet. Just bring your swimming costume.” That would be your best case scenario (except perhaps for the Sheeran). More likely, as has frequently happened to me since I’ve looked old enough to sign a register, the person asking the question puts their head on one side and gives a smile that says not “fantastic, now I can make my move” but “I wonder what’s wrong with you?” (It was probably the moustache). Since Noah shuffled all the animals except the manmade ones* onto the Ark, mammals have been going two-by-two. Admitting that you’re without a “better half”, or even “a half you would push under a bus if you thought no one was looking”, generally elicits pity and not a little distrust. You feel it even at an actual singles’ night, where people without partners, who are supposedly looking for love, approach potential dates in a spirit of anxious trepidation, each convinced they’re the only person in the room who is single by circumstance and not because they’re a potential bunny boiler. To be single is to be suspicious. And yet the number of people living alone is very much on the rise. The Office of National Statistics calculated that almost eight million people were living alone in the UK last year. The ONS further estimates that by 2020, the number of households where people live alone will increase by another two million. That’s an awful lot of weirdoes. Or widows. Widowers. Divorcees. Single people who haven’t started looking. Single people who are actively looking. And single people who’ve looked and decided they don’t actually want to be in a relationship at all. That’s a pretty broad group to consider somehow lacking. Yet we do make judgements based on people’s relationships or lack of them and the most prevalent assumption is that coupled up is better. “Four legs good, two legs bad,” to borrow a phrase from Snowball in Orwell’s Animal Farm. (Six legs is something else entirely.)

One of Donald Trump's top economic advisers has acknowledged the president was wrong to suggest that China would pay tariffs on its exports to the US. Larry Kudlow, who heads the National Economic Council, accepted it was US businesses that paid the import tax. He told Fox News that he believed "both sides will suffer" from the escalating trade dispute. On Friday Mr Trump tweeted that tariffs on $250bn of goods coming into the US were being paid "by China". The president argued there was "no need to rush" into a trade agreement with China, as the US Treasury was benefiting from these "massive payments". However, in an interview with Fox News Sunday, Mr Kudlow admitted that it was American businesses that paid the tariffs on any goods brought in from China, and that US consumers would also foot the bill if firms passed on the cost increase. Mr Kudlow said he thought the tariffs would also have an impact on China's economy, as the higher cost would reduce US demand for Chinese goods. "Both sides will suffer on this," he said. What you asked about US-China trade The US-China trade war in charts US-China trade war in 300 words Last year the US imposed a 10% tariff on $200bn worth of Chinese products - including fish, handbags, clothing and footwear. The firms paying the additional tariff can choose to absorb it themselves, pass it on to consumers in the form of higher prices, or ask their suppliers to reduce their prices. Last week the US said it was increasing tariffs from 10% to 25% on $200bn (£153.7bn) of goods from China. President Trump said Beijing "broke the deal" by backtracking on earlier commitments to change its policies. Mr Trump said a process had begun to place the full 25% tariff on a further $325bn of Chinese goods, causing concern over the impact the ongoing tit-for-tat trade spat between the world's two largest economies might have on global growth. China said it deeply regretted the US action and would take "necessary counter-measures".

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